Work

It has been many years since I was in paid work. For nearly 10 years now I have been a full time mum. When I was about 4 months pregnant with Steven I was working in a plant nursery and had to stop as i was fainting all the time from the heat in the glasshouses so was no use to them really. Then when Liam was little I went back there to work just on Saturdays for a little while. I totally love being a full time mum...full time single mum wasn't in the plan of things but turned out that way. Once Liam started school I really enjoyed having some 'me' time. While work was questioned at that time I was unable to cope with working and then coming home to be the best mum I could. Now that the boys are older and Steven especially is sleeping right through the night and alot easier to deal with, now is the right time for me to work. At the end of last year I got a call from the kindy that both the boys went to and got asked if I was keen to do some hours with a child. The following week I had an interview and everything was all go. At the start of this term I started working with 2 kids as an ESW(Education Support Worker). I have totally enjoyed my first term of working as an ESW and look forward to next term where I will have more hours with more kids. Both my boys had ESW's when they were at kindy. Steven because of his autism and global developmental delay. He needed lots of support to get him interacting with the other kids and help with his speech. Liam went to kindy a very shy boy who followed the teachers around not wanting anything to do with the kids. At home once Liam started moving he was picked on by Steven and I think this is why he didn't interact with the kids at kindy and he thought that all kids would hurt him, so he needed support to help him get over that and also with gross motor skills. For the most part they both had the same ESW, for a little while Liam had a different one to who Steven had had. With out this support the boys would have struggled through kindy(well Steven not so much I'm sure he would have been more than happy to have been left to play on his own). I believe kindy and the play that the kids do there is very important and if kids need extra support it does make a HUGE difference. Now that I'm an ESW and giving this support to kids I hope I can make a difference like what was made to Steven and Liam. I honestly dont know how parents work full time and then come home and be parents....I dint have alot of hours at the moment but there are some days where I'm so ready for bed come 7pm. The boys have had to get use to getting organised and leaving for school earlier and also for me to leave school earlier than I use to. I use to always go to each of their classrooms look at their work and talk with the teachers if there was anything needed talking about and leave at 9 when the bell went, now I need to leave at 8.35ish to be at work on time(which lucky is just on the other side of town) next term I'm going to try and drop them off in the mornings without me getting out of the car and going into the class rooms. While it seems easy enough to do Steven and change don't go together very well, so its all about baby steps. All in all working is great I love what I do and the kids that I'm working with each with their own little challenge and I love being back at the kindy the boys went to. Bring on term 2 with more work.